


FML FOREVER

by ambrosespellmanz



Category: Riverdale (TV 2017)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Bisexual Female Character of Color, Canonical Character Death, F/F, Polyamory, titled inspired by 13rw
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-08
Updated: 2017-10-08
Packaged: 2019-01-10 20:08:57
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,250
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12306801
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ambrosespellmanz/pseuds/ambrosespellmanz
Summary: 1 + 1 + 1 was not a simple equation. The simple thing about it was that it always added up to three.





	FML FOREVER

**Author's Note:**

> someone on tumblr brought up the unholy Trinity that is Josie Cheryl and Toni and thus this fic was born. hope you enjoy.

Imagine three little girls. A girl with curly hair and a voice that could save her from this hellish town. Another girl with dark brown (now pink) hair. She would soon learn that she would never get the catch to live the average normal teenage life, not where she was raised. The last girl, with red hair that made her stand out from everyone else. She'd find out the hard way that everything you built up can be snatched away with a simple boat ride.

**—**

Josie, Toni, and Cheryl used to be inseparable. Sleepovers in elementary school, staying out late at night during the summer, and mall trips during middle school.

Josie never liked math. Too simple and boring for her. She wanted to sing, not multiply.

Even she understood that 1 + 1 + 1 isn't a simple equation.

**—**

It only makes since for Josie to be the first to leave; she was the first member in their triad.

It starts in eighth grade. Josie's mom signs her up for a summer job at Power Records.

“It's time to start thinking about your future Josephine. If you want to sing, then you have to start somewhere.”

Working in a stockroom isn't her idea of a good summer, but it's how she meets Valerie and Melody. 

Movie dates with Cher and Toni turn into practice sessions with The Pussycats. She even got them all matching cat ears.

Missed phone calls turn into deleted cell phone numbers and it's like Josie hadn't even known them.

**—**

Cheryl is the next to go. Her parents don't want her hanging out with people like Toni.

Cheryl doesn't know what they mean by that yet, but she knows she doesn't want to upset her parents. She's seen what they've done to Jason firsthand.

At least Jason had Polly. He had a excuse to not be at home as much.

She joins the Vixens and makes her name as captain in three months. She was always an ambitious one.

She doesn't have any friends. Ginger and Tina are there when she needs someone to help carry out her plans.

She doesn't date. No one catches her attention. Except for Archie, but the boy had way too much baggage that she was willing to deal with. The whole endgame Betty + Archie 4 Eva thing made her feel sick.

Fairy tales didn't happen in Riverdale. Not when the dragon guarding the castle was buried deep inside the princess.

**—**

Toni feels like a fish dangling from a hook.

No Cheryl and no Josie. She turns to the next best thing, her family.

She never paid attention to much when she was younger. Like the double padded locks on their front door. The hushed conversations her dad has with strange men when he took her to the park. The worried look on her mom's face every time her dad came home, like their was some unforeseen evil she could sense coming.

When Toni enters high school, she kisses a girl for the first time.

(She's had boyfriends and crushes before.

Jughead smiles sympathetically as she tries to kiss then explains, “I'm not into people that way.”

She's not one to push. So, she puts some space between them in hopes that he won't be so uncomfortable around her. In the end, Jughead is still a good friend to her.)

But, girls were always something curious to her. She kisses Sabrina under the bleachers during a football game.

She was only here because Sweets and Fang practically begged her to.

(You could say they were her new best friends.)

She likes the kiss. Sabrina giggles as she pulls away.

“I never done that before.”

Neither has she, but that information is irrelevant.

Later that night, she does a quick Google search and discovers the subject of bisexuality.

Two days later, she dyes her hair pink. She figured it would go well with her self-discovery. She wishes Josie and Cheryl were here to see it. Man, she hasn't seen thought of them in so long.

On her fifteenth birthday, Idris (no, not dad, she stopped calling him that some time ago) gives her a black leather jacket and the proudest look she's ever gotten from him as she puts it on.

“It's about time you start learning about your place in this world, Toni.”

**—**

It's a cold day when they reunite. Toni is at the movies with Joaquin. He was supposed to be getting them some snacks, but its over five minutes and he still isn't back yet.

“This is why you don't send boys to do a woman's job.”

She gets up and heads over to the confession stand to get something for herself. Too busy looking at her phone to notice the bright red hair of the person in front of her.

“Could you be any more slower?”

Toni's heart speeds up some at the voice and she takes a step back to get away, a step back right into someone else.

“Can you watch where you're going?”

Josie snarky frown transforms to a mouth open in silence as her former friends stare back at her.

“You dyed your hair?”

Toni has a small moment of confusion before nodding. “It was time for a change.”

The words are cringe worthy and she suddenly feels aware of everything.

“I like it.”

“Thanks, Cheryl.”

It's weird and awkward and Josie wishes she could knew what she wanted to say to them exactly.

Sorry for ditching you guys sounds way too obvious.

Cheryl pushes her hair to the back. “This was nice. Let's do it again some time.”

They won't. It's understood by all of them.

(They do. Like Josie said, it was never a simple equation.)

**—**

Cheryl likes to think everything happens for a reason; the domino effect.

Clifford killing Jason (her brother, his son) had to be some weird joke.

She wishes her dad didn't hang himself. She wanted to him to have to live with it just like she does.

Alice calls him a coward and that could be the end of it. Her dad wasn't a coward, he was mean and cruel and he knew exactly what he was doing.

**—**

Josie can't stop thinking about Cheryl. So, she goes to see her immediately after the Jubilee performance.

Apparently Toni had the same idea.

Josie gasps as she sees Thornhill burning. Cheryl stands in front of it, familiar white dress on like she didn't know how to take it off.

Josie guesses it was poetic in a way.

Penelope is on her knees, weeping like her life depended on it. Josie never saw her saw full of emotion that was anything besides anger.

Josie steps around her to stand next to Cheryl. Toni takes the other side of the smiling girl.

Josie takes a deep breath, “It's not over yet, is it?”

Cheryl huffs out a short laugh then grabs hold of both their hands.

“No. It's just starting.”

**—**

Imagine three older girls. Josie with her dollar store cat ears and need to please others. Cheryl with her red hair, white dress, and burning memories of the dead Blossom men. Toni with her pink hair, a nameless father, and Serpent jacket. Three very different girls holding hands as a house and everything inside turns to ashes.

Things come tumbling down all the time. Building it back up was the fun part.

1 + 1 + 1 was not a simple equation. The simple thing about it was that it always added up to three.

**Author's Note:**

> find me on tumblr @fuckyeahjosiemccoy


End file.
